Kodak Technical Pan at very low EIs

[bljkasfdljkasfdljskfa]

I've been experimenting to tame Technical Pan a little bit. My

question is at what EIs this film's latitude will approach that of

fast films (if at all? So far my testing with 80/50/25 EIs in

different developers tells me it's not low enough. The contrast is

still too high. Does anyone have experience with this film at EIs of

12 or 6? What contrast should I expect? Printability?

[lowell_huff1]

I think you would like our EXTEND plus Developer and this film.

[chris_waller]

I've shot Tech Pan at 6 ASA and devved in Rodinal 1:200, 20 C, 16 minutes. Continuous, slow inversion for the first minute then one inversion every minute. Contrast was about normal. But then I was using a condenser head enlarger so for diffuser head maybe one inversion every 30 seconds would be better.

[bljkasfdljkasfdljskfa]

At those low EIs, should it be possible to photograph high contrast scenes without blocking up highlights?

[brian_c._miller]

I have tried it at 12, but I found that there was halation from clouds in the sky. Try it at 30sec under the recommended development time and see what you get for contrast.

[trojan_horse]

Lowell - I wish I could tell whether your recommendation is marketing hype for your own product or a serious and impartial recommendation. I'd like to try your recommendation all the same, if it wasn't for my dwindling stock of Kodak Tec Pan.

 

Dan - Tech Pan at ISO 6 works in sunny f11 (I know I know) conditions in Paterson FX39 for no more than 3 minutes at 20C. You have to presoak and reduce agitation due to the intensity of the development, but the shadows don't block up.

 

Print-wise, I get away with Grade III (soft contrast) and IV (harder). When I used Kodak Technidol, the results were crisp but still more contrasty than Rodinal 1:300 standing dev. which streaked terribly. I like Rodinal, but I can't control the streaking in roll format. Hence going the other way - 3 minutes for short dev. times and very manageable contrast).

 

Hope that helps.

[m_p7]

Tech Pan @ EI25 in Technidol works for me. Although I plan to do some fiddling in Rodinal and Xtol with my remaining 6 rolls + 100 feet.

[bljkasfdljkasfdljskfa]

How do you guys use Tech Pan? Landscapes? Abstracts? Nature?

[brian_c._miller]

I use it for anything where I just gotta have that no-grain image. :-) Other than having no grain, its just film.

 

I never had a personal problem with the contrast. The main problem with this film is that it has a really thin base, and its easy to screw up when loading it on a reel. And that Kodak no longer makes it.

 

From the Carl Zeiss website, Fuji Neopan Acros can get more line pairs on the film. I just bought a couple rolls of Fuji to try out, and I'll see how that goes.